Inside Out 2008: This Judith Light Of Mine (I'm Gonna Let Her Shine!)

Inside Out film goers who had their hearts set on seeing With Gilbert and George, a documentary about the lives of the European "living sculpture" artists are in for something of a disappointment as the screening has been cancelled. In its place, the festival will be showing Shelter for a second time. If you can stand a complete change of mood, the film really is charming and worth a look. Another screening of interest is the Queer Youth Digital Video Project, an initiative started by Inside Out which will consist of 14 short films made on the cheap by queer youth specifically for the festival.

Maybe we're a bit strange, but the screening today that immediately grabbed our interest was Save Me (pictured), an American film about a Christian ex-gay camp run by none other than Judith Light! Yes, that Judith Light! Chad Allen plays Mark, a boozing, depressed, godless homo drug fiend who gets sent to Ms. Light's school for wayward boys in an attempt to cure him of his wicked ways. Though it's obvious from the very beginning that Mark will fall in love with one of his fellow inmates at gay rehab, the film (which Light also produced) goes remarkably easy on the whole ex-gay movement, which we think is one of the creepiest things afoot in the States. Actually, other than being a bit of a wet blanket at a hoe-down that starts getting suggestively homosocial (gasp!), Judith and her cult come across as charming and not altogether wrong-headed. The whole thing has a definite MOW feel to it, but given the subject matter (and the Judith frickin' Light!), what else could you expect? It ain't high art, but it is a little bit camp, a little bit maudlin and boasts one of the more in-your-face gay sex scenes you're going to see at the festival.

A Village Romance: Lesbian Love, 1:00 p.m. at the NFB
I Think We’re Alone Now, 2:15 p.m. at the ROM
She’s a Boy I Knew, 2:30 p.m. at the Isabel Bader
U People, 3:00 p.m. at the NFB
Queer Youth Digital Video Project, 4:30 p.m. at the Isabel Bader
Shelter (Rescreening), 4:45 p.m. at the ROM
Save Me, 7:15 p.m. at the Isabel Bader
Lez Be Friends, 7:30 p.m. at the ROM
Hide and Seek, 9:45 p.m. at the ROM
The World Unseen, 10:00 p.m. at the Isabel Bader